Six Pack

“God has taken him home,” the preacher says from the pulpit. Someone drooling an intoxicated stench from the back mumbles, “That’s bull, the bottle put him under.” The sad thing is before his twenty-first birthday he is dead. More than anything else this is what drives societies in many states to legislate tough laws of drinking at age twenty-one. Not that they totally stop alcohol consumption, but they at least bring out the debate of alcohol consumption to the group most likely to be affected most; the teens maturing to adults.

To understand the dangers of alcohol one must first understand the chronic disease, alcoholism. Defined as the habitual consumption of alcohol liquor to excess or the continued drinking of alcohol despite adverse social and occupational consequences, this disease is characterized by psychological and nutritional body disorders.

The causes of alcoholism are yet to be known. Studies though have revealed that biological children of alcoholics are more likely to develop the disease. This has led to suggestions that alcoholism maybe associated with a genetic or biochemical imperfection passed on from parent to kids. Studies also reveal that a person’s background and personality trait can predispose them to the disease. They show that many alcoholics come from homes where there is a lot of alcohol drinking, broken homes or homes where the relationship with parents or mentors maybe traumatized.

“Alcohol brings me out to the world,” a shy or lonely person will be heard saying as they drown the depressant downer to raise spirits. The sad thing is that this happy stage is short lived and this person more than often ends up as the lonely drunkard who remains in the bar only to be thrown out after drinking all their money.

He/she had a chance to enjoy life! One may argue. To some extent this is true but after considering that alcohol is an expensive drink that impairs ones ability to be productive at work, causes motor vehicle homicide, and affects the health of the person; this statement lacks merit.

Medical science diagnosis is that prolonged use of alcohol in excess can damage many of the internal body organs. The science has classified the shortfalls as:

Nutritional defects: These are defects caused by poor feeding that in turn bring about anemia, birth defects, skin damage, diarrhea and depression.

Gastrointestinal soreness: This include esophagus pain and cancer; stomach irritation and ulcers; Liver inflammation and cancer; Pancreas inflammation and cancer.

Cardiovascular: The heart develops abnormal heartbeat and sometimes fails. Or high blood pressure affects blood vessels to puncture leading to strokes.

Neurological: The brain is distressed making the alcoholic experience confusion, reduced coordination, and poor short-term memory. The nerves also deteriorate in arms and legs leading to reduced ability to walk or use arms.

Knowing this may lead you to say Alcoholics should be forced to withdraw right away! But wait a minute! Sudden withdrawal from alcohol by a heavy drinking is as dangerous as the disease of alcoholism. A person who suddenly stops drinking can suddenly develop alcohol withdrawal syndrome. The symptoms to this include: tremors, weakness, sweating and nausea. Some people also experience seizures also called alcoholic epilepsy or rum fits. And still others are known to have developed alcoholic hallucinations.

The hallucinations however can be treated with drugs but if left untreated they could lead to other serious symptoms like a person feeling anxious, confusion, sleeplessness, nightmares, excessive sweating and profound depression that could escalate to illusions of fear. Such a person may feel as though the ground is moving, the walls falling or the room spinning. This delirium can be fatal and most people will treat them with drinking and the vicious cycle of alcohol dependency is set in motion once again. 

What an agony! Well, to those who have the disease, to those who are crying, “I’m lonely, I’m shy,” and all those been raised in malfunctioned families and trying to find an escape? The escape shouldn’t be alcohol for the chance of developing the disease is very high. But the way to avoid this terrible dependency is to get psychological help or affiliate with a religious group. After all, the only thing the drink does best is bury one in the same state of life they want to escape from if not worse.
To no surprise the best working solution to alcoholism today is a spiritual social program, Alcoholic Anonymous, popularly known as A.A.

Visiting an alcoholic anonymous group is the best way of understanding how a simple thinking way can get one out of a painful alcoholic life. Here you hear alcoholics talk of their years of hopelessness, divorces, terrible diseases, lost opportunities, lost jobs, commission of robberies, suicide attempts, accidents, prison terms… name it you will hear it. And to think that all these could be fundamentally sourced to alcohol is mind-boggling.

One also hears that this disease is incurable and frightening. And then one hears that this spiritual program offers a spiritual way of life that has helped many overcome the disease. They tell you it starts with an admission of powerlessness over alcohol. Then the need of using one’s full senses as a human being to hear the message, think about it, review the effects of the past, realize, admit and accept the need to change. All these processes are the activities of the mind, which is part of the spirit.

Alcoholism can only be defeated where it reigns, in the human mind. The one statement one hears every time you are in an A.A meeting is, “keep coming.” This two words are the medicine for alcoholism is a mind disease that one can’t get rid of. Pass by a bar and the craving wakes up. The moment one is lonely the disease revisits. And the medicine is in two simple words, “keep coming.”

Coming back to A.A and meeting other people with the same disease reminds one of the nature of the disease, and reading and discussing through the A.A twelve steps to recovery gives more meaning to recovery. “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable.” The first step opens the gate to the mind.
The second step, “Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity,” is a cry for rescue.

The next step, “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him,” offers a way to seek help.

To some alcoholics the A.A group is the higher power, and these three steps form the foundation to recovery.

Alcoholism without doubt is one of societies greatest menace. Alcohol has been known to make a parent leave a child at home unattended. It is one of the major public concerns in many countries. Every State in the U.S has painstaking laws against drunk driving which are aimed at reducing the road carnage.

Companies lose heavily from poor work performance by employees suffering from this disease.  Medical complications, deaths and spread of sexual transmitted diseases like AIDS could primarily be sourced to alcoholism. Many a time an alcohol-ridden mind will accidentally burn down their home.

But to all those with the disease there’s hope. The hope is attending and creating social groups of Alcoholic Anonymous, which are now all over the world. This group is the best way of keeping sobriety for a day.

It is true alcoholism can never be cured but it can indeed be put under control. Two words “Keep coming” bring one to the A.A meetings and then the constant reminder in the words each sober alcoholic says with ease and believe to his fellow alcoholic, “I’m a recovering alcoholic,” help keep one at check for that day.

Hearing people talk about how they have been sober for more than ten years one day at a time, and to see other people ailed by this psychological dependence humbly clap their acknowledgement and support signifies hope.

And what else do you know? Many alcoholics had found a social home. A group that supports them from shyness, depression and loneliness to at least wake up the next morning without the agony, headache and misery the disease bestows.

The greatest thing a person suffering from alcoholism can have in life is living one happy day without the help of the merry creating, social high harmony drug also called liquor, but through the ecstasy of knowing “I’m sober today!”

Have a sober life.